Thi Hoa Nguyen's Group

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to the group, consisting of Thi Hoa Nguyen, Thi Thu Dao, Thi Thuy Le, Thi Nu To, Thi Lan Nguyen, Thi Hang Nguyen by SEDA in Viet Nam. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 6 months, SEDA will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

Recently I had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. To Thi Nu and Mrs. Nguyen Thi Lan, who are both members of Mrs. Hoa Thi Nguyen’s group. Both ladies live in the same village in the Bac Ninh province, about 2 ½ hours north of Hanoi.

The Kiva web-site incorrectly states that Mrs. To Thi Nu used her Kiva loan to buy fertiliser. This is not the case – she used her loan to buy goods to sell at her market stall. 20 times a month Mrs. To travels north to the Chinese border where she purchases Chinese goods such as ceramics, toys, cookware and the like at cheaper prices. It’s a 3 hour journey by local bus and her typical day is to leave home at 7am, arrive at the border at 10am, shop for 3 hours, depart the border at 2pm and arrive back home at 5pm. Her customers are also able to place specific orders with her and she will ensure she buys that particular item for them. Mrs. To informs us that this is a relatively new business for her and that she has only been doing it for 3 years. Prior she worked with her husband as a rice and pig farmer.

Throughout the interview a young lady of about 16-18 years old is attending to a newborn. If it was my home country of Australia, I would assume that both girls are Mrs. To’s daughters, but as it is Vietnam I suspect that they are instead her daughter and grand-daughter. In response to our question, Mrs. To proudly confirms that it is in fact her 19 year old daughter and 3 month old grand-daughter. A large wedding portrait of her eldest daughter and son-in-law has pride of place on top of the doorway. Mrs. To herself is only 38 years old, so she is certainly one sprightly grandmother! She has another 2 daughters and a son who are not married.

As the group members are all friend and neighbours, Mrs. To walks us over to Mrs. Nguyen Thi Lan’s house. Mrs. Nguyen Thi Lan grows rice and has a clothes stall at the local market. The Kiva web-site incorrectly states that she used her loan to buy fertiliser, whereas she used it to buy clothes for her stall. She also travels to the Chinese border, but this time to buy clothes at cheaper prices. She travels every second day, totalling 15 trips a month. Once again it is a 3 hour journey, commencing at 6.30am and arriving back home at 6pm. Mrs. Nguyen buys 600,000 Vietnamese ( approximately $US 37.50 ) worth of stock at a time. With regards to profit, she tells us that for each 600,000 Dong she makes approximately 200,000 Vietnamese Dong ( approx $US 12.50 ). Her Kiva loan would fund 4 trips in their entirety, but instead she will portion the money out over the 6 months to improve her cash-flow.

Below is a photo of Mrs. Nguyen Thi Lan ( far left ), Mrs, To Thi Nu ( second from left ) and their respective mothers-in-law.